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Richard Kern

Richard Kern is both controversial and hugely respected as a photographer and film-maker operating at the boundaries of the art world, the music scene and the sex industry. His fascination for the aesthetics and problematics of voyeurism and pornography, and his willingness to play a part in these industries has given him a significantly active perspective on this area of image-making, and the key to many of his photographs is his subversion of the 'rules' of pornography. Born in North Carolina in 1954, he has lived and worked in New York City since 1979, where he was drawn to a particular downtown scene. In the eighties, he produced a series of extreme short films that now are recognized as the central works of the 'Cinema of Transgression'. Films featuring Nick Zedd, Lydia Lunch, Sonic Youth, David Wojnarowitcz, Audrey Rose and Clint Ruin depicted characters shooting up, piercing and cutting themselves, or performing violence towards each other, over harsh soundtracks produced by Jim Thirlwell. Since the 1990s he has concentrated solely on photography, making subtly subversive and seductive photographs of young female models posing in a variety of ordinary environments, and often engaged in routines such as hair-drying, squeezing spots or using eye-drops. These images have been published in key books such as 'New York Girls' and 'Model Release', alongside more explicit sexual posing. Kern occasionally directs music videos for bands like Sonic Youth and Marilyn Manson. He is a regular contributor to a variety of international publications.